In modern architecture and civil engineering, there is an increasing emphasis on energy efficient construction using natural materials and the exploitation of renewable resources. Solar energy can be partially captured through the glass, which transmits not only light but also heats the building. Thus, the construction of timber houses with a significant amount of glazing is becoming increasingly common. Conversely, such construction can have adverse effects on earthquake resistance of houses. In current standardisation, however, glass is not considered as a load-bearing material, although some manufacturers advertise timber-glass panels as elements of load-bearing construction. To better understand the contribution of timber-glass panels to the seismic resistance of timber buildings, we examined the existing research from the field of timber-glass panels and present the findings in the first part of the thesis. This is followed by a simplified seismic analysis of a typical prefabricated house with timber-glass wall elements, aimed at estimating the contribution of timber-glass wall elements to the earthquake resistance of the building. In addition, the displacements of the timber-glass wall elements are verified by comparing the inelastic displacement determined according to the Eurocode 8 provisions and the experimentally-based displacement capacity of timber-wood panels obtained from previous studies. The verification was performed for the limit state of damage limitation, significant damage and the near-collapse limit state. The results indicated an appropriate seismic performance of timber-glass wall elements, which are used only in one plane of the analysed building. In addition, the conclusion is based on assuming uniformly distributed seismic demand in terms of deformations along the building height and that the connections between the structural elements are not the critical parts of the structure. These assumptions can be verified by a nonlinear seismic analysis and risk analysis, which, is beyond the scope of this thesis.
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